What? What? What?
by GypsyTimeLady5147
Summary: Jessie Gale, American, works in a pizza restaurant in California, has a run in with two men who'll change her life for good. Although they never seem to meet in the right order. Rated M for mature themes and cause I like writing content that makes you think. Doctor/OC and Jack/OC. AU NEW AND IMPROVED!


**A/N: Special thanks to Palaven Blues and … Legion … for being my Betas here! **

**I know I might have lost some of you as readers because of my deletion of the old version, but, after enthusiastic reviews, I've decided to redo this propperly. With Betas! This might not be the same story you remember, but I feel that I can invest in this now more so than when I started. Hope you all like this new version. **

**I Don't Own Doctor Who, Just My Characters.**

"But …"

_Beep! Beep!_

The harsh blaring of the security system jabbed blades of white-hot pain through my skull. I winced, pinching the bridge of my nose and trying not to taste the bile in my throat. Didn't the universe hate me enough today without having someone come in _just _as my shift ended? Apparently not. We didn't have any call-in orders, so I needed to talk them through their purchases.

Great. Hopefully I wouldn't throw up all over the counter before they were done.

_Right. Put on the smile. Beach-blonde happy, here we go._

"Hello. What can I get for you?" Even my own voice nearly sent me over the edge. Pressure grew inside my head, more pronounced when I looked at the new people directly. _Okay, definitely time for the pills when I get home. If I get home. Please, please, please make it quick!_

The three customers were so involved in their own conversation that they didn't react to my question. Two guys had their backs to me, the woman holding their attention. " ... just bloody great, Jack. Not only are we on the wrong continent, but we've lost the bloody signal and you're _hungry_?"

"Oh come on, Gwen. Ianto's on it," retorted the tall guy with a blue long-coat. "This thing's useless until we get a better read on the location, anyway. This is the only pizza place close to where we landed. What's wrong with good old American pizza? Hot, greasy …."

"And fresh, but that depends on when you order." The retort came out of my mouth before I could stop myself. _Great job. Risk a write-up, why don't you? _Too late, though. My tongue never kept itself in check when my head ached. Might make them speed it up a little.

The woman's eyes widened farther than I thought humanly possible, her jaw almost hitting the floor. "No. No … bloody … way. Just … no." The way she stared at me made me think I should be sprouting tentacles or something. Or I should be a ghost.

The man in the blue coat spun around. He sucked in his breath, going so pale that I thought he would faint. "Jess?" Almost against his will, he took a step forward.

"My name's Jessica, yes." An unpleasant tingle started along my skin. Just looking at him made my head tighten almost unbearably. How'd he know my name? I don't wear a nametag; company policy. "Do I know you?"

With a flash of a smile that failed miserably, the man ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair. "Come on, Jess, it's me. Jack Harkness? You said you'd remember what I looked like."

The color had yet to return to his face.

"Um …." I swallowed as bile rose in my throat again. Not yet, I inwardly yelled at my stomach. Just a few minutes more! The longer I looked at the guy, the more my heart raced until it felt like I'd been running for miles. I didn't dare risk staring into his eyes, however. Every instinct I had told me it would be a bad idea with painful results. "Look," I eventually conceded with a sigh, "I might've seen you before or heard your name, but not connected the two. It's a problem of mine, sorry."

"Oh, come on, Jess, very funny." The man calling himself Jack leaned over the counter, resting one of his hands on mine. Fear rolled off of him in waves I could almost physically feel. "End of the universe? Dancing in World War Two? Big police box? At least tell me you remember that."

Guilt made me long for the tiles to open up and swallow me whole. "I'm . . . I'm sorry, sir, you must have me confused with someone else? I've never seen you before in my life."

"Not . . . possible. Not in a million years." A harder edge emerged in Jack's voice. Certainty, perhaps? Everything became more jumbled with each passing second. "You're Jessica Gale. Born on the Boeshang . . .."

"Jack! I've got it!" A fourth man, the third of Jack's … friends … companions … with an accent, burst inside, waving a tablet around his head. "The signal's back! It just dropped us …." He trailed off, eyes meeting mine within moments. "Hold on, is that …."

The woman grabbed Jack's shoulder and yanked him back into a huddle. All I could hear went along the lines of " … wrong timeline …."

By that point, I didn't care. With the addition of the fourth member of the group, my migraine went from barely tolerable into the blinding range. Pressing my hand to my face, I made excuses to the manager before rushing to the lockers near the back door. _Should've done this an hour ago. _On automatic, with every movement sending white-hot pokers into my brain, I fumbled inside my purse for my beloved pill bottle. The only thing I knew of that could knock me out long enough.

Someone-the dough-boy, maybe-dropped a box with a clatter, clinching the deal. Lurching out the door, I barely made it to the bushes before losing my war against my stomach.

By the time I could trust my stomach to behave for long enough, I'd sunk onto my knees. The concrete bit through the worn fabric of my jeans, but I couldn't make myself move. I could feel everyone in the store behind me. From their smallest flights of emotions to full-out ones that lasted longer than a few seconds, I could taste the chaos on my tongue. Even the people in the stores next to us, their whirlwind of feelings pressing against me until I didn't know where I began and they ended.

Too much, too much!

" … going on?" A new voice shredded the air around me. Another woman with an accent, but younger. I could feel her confusion as stale cotton candy in my mouth with the spice of a growing crush tingling on my tongue. "I thought you were taking me to another planet, not . . . America."

Heavy footsteps thudded on the sidewalk some distance away. Around the corner, perhaps. "Hold on a second, can you feel that?" Curiosity, minty curiosity, blossomed with such strength that I nearly threw up again.

"What? Feel what, Doctor?"

The footsteps started up again, but slower, cautiously until it sounded like they turned the corner. "Oh." Although the mint overpowered everything else, I caught the peach of concern for a few split seconds before they both just … vanished. Like the man had become a robot and could turn his emotions off.

The girl didn't have that blessed ability, however. Her peach-flavored concern overrode everything else, quickly becoming enough to make me shake trying to keep from losing it yet again. "Doctor? The girl … is she the reason the TARDIS went all … sparky?"

"Yes."

"What's wrong with her?" Somehow, with quieter footsteps, the girl had managed to get closer. I flinched, hands clenching at the sides of my head like it would help. "Should we …."

"Rose, stay back," warned the man called the Doctor. A stiff, cold edge underlined his words, but I didn't feel any of it.

"But …."

"No. She's an empath, a powerful one from the feel of it, and untrained. Your emotions are just making it worse." Unlike with the girl, Rose, the Doctor's steps were audible as he came closer. Couldn't be more than a few feet away, and I still didn't feel anything from him.

"But what about your …."

Cement ground beneath a heel, it felt like sandpaper across my brain. "I'll be fine, Rose, but if I don't stop her, people will be in danger, including you. Just trust me and wait back at the TARDIS."

Silence fell for a few seconds before Rose's chaos retreated, its absence letting up a minute fraction of the pressure inside me.

_Okay. Deep breath. Don't throw up doing it. _

Very carefully, I inhaled through my nose, but the action sent new spears through every part of my skull. Another whimper escaped me and I bent over so far, I would've ended up on the ground if a pair of arms didn't circle me.

"Hush, now. I'm not going to hurt you." The scent of leather became too much. He held onto me even as I retched into the bushes again. As soon as I was reasonably steady, he took my head in his hands. Large, rough hands, but they were gentle as they held me. Hands I felt I could trust. "Now I'm really sorry about this since we haven't really met. I really am, but this must be done."

A sensation that I could only describe as a footstep crossed into the screaming torrent of my mind.

I froze, every instinct I had demanding me to throw that … whatever it was … out. The presence that accompanied the footstep backtracked as I refused to let it go further. Though I could still feel everyone's emotions around me, threatening to press in and wash me away, my little spot with the man with no emotions became an eye in that storm. I could think again, and what I'd just felt shouldn't have been possible.

"But . . .." I'd come to terms with my instincts a long time ago. Meeting someone else who could . . . well . . . enter minds came close to asking too much of me to believe. "Who . . .."

". . . are you?" He finished the sentence with me, a trickle of emotion leaking through his void. Nothing of substance besides a definite protectiveness.

The doctor man sighed, his forehead rested against mine. "Look, I know exactly how painful this is, and I can help, but not unless you let me. You'll want to keep me out, but I can't do anything from outside, can you understand?"

"Y . . . yes." The answer came as naturally as breathing. I didn't have to think for a moment, though I had no idea why. "Please, can you . . . can you make it stop? I can't take it anymore."

"Didn't I say hush? All you had to do was nod." He muttered some sort of curse. "You Americans are stubborn." A smile had entered his voice, which warmed up several degrees. "Now, to help you, I need you to trust me, and I mean completely trust me. A bit much to ask, I get it, but this won't work any other way. Not in the way I want it to."

I bit my lip. The whirlwind outside our calm island beginning to creep in on me again. "If you can't …. What happens if I can't help myself? If you can't do anything?"

The Doctor hesitated. "Do I need to explain that to you?" came his quiet response, weighted down by things that, at the moment, I didn't mind not knowing.

He didn't. I shuddered at the thought of living in that kind of pain any longer or even, as he'd said, having it affect others. No, I couldn't live like that. It wouldn't be living, even.

"Okay."

The guy seemed to freeze. "What?"

"'Said okay." I managed a smile for him.

His chuckle flowed like a balm over my nerves seconds before the footstep crossed into my mind yet again. And another. And another. I thought it would be easy to let him keep "walking," but I found it a strain as he went further and further inside. It felt like a needle inserted into a balloon and any moment, the balloon would pop. His mind, completely alien, foreign, moving with such ease, it took my breath away. Everything I had screamed for me to shove him out, that he didn't belong. Grinding my teeth, I forced those thoughts aside, clearing a path for him. He said he would help. I trusted him.

Between one breath and the next, I went from almost drowning in others to stranded within the desert of my own mind. I gasped, jerking out of his grasp and smacking our foreheads together in the process. Silence. Complete and utter silence! With my hand massaging my forehead, I peeled my eyes open, a smile of disbelief starting on my lips.

"There you go. Everything you should've had to begin with." Now that I could actually see him, I knew his face didn't match his voice. Shaved head, half-dorky smile, and . . . big ears. Since he still crouched, I couldn't tell how tall he'd be. In any case, he cringed and rubbed his forehead. "Ow. Warn somebody next time you do that."

"Sorry, involuntary reaction. I couldn't help it, sorry." I retorted with a smile. With a grunt, I pulled my legs together and managed to get my feet under me. Being on the ground for so long, however, my legs didn't want to be so cooperative. I wobbled and would've fallen over again if he hadn't gripped my arms tighter. "Thanks. Is this a habit of yours? Catching graceless klutzes like myself?"

The smile he flashed at me seemed to carry a trace of nervousness. Thankfully, that was only a guess. The chaotic buffet of emotions remained a memory, the silence he'd brought still holding up strong. "Not if I can help it, and no, it won't last." Unfolding his legs, the Doctor stood, bringing me up with him. It confirmed my suspicions about his height; at least a couple inches taller than me.

I held onto his arms as the roaring in my ears faded. "Uh … what won't last? How did you get in my head like that? What did you do, exactly?" Question after question tried

to roll off my tongue now that I could actually think things through.

"Three, it's complicated. Two, not as complicated, but still too complicated for you. One …." At this, the Doctor trailed off, running a hand over his head. Lines appeared on his forehead as he frowned gathered around his eyes. I could almost see the mental walls rising around him.

"So … let me guess, it's complicated? Will the migraines come back at all?"

He perked up a bit at that. "No! No, the mental block I put should degrade gradually over the next few years. It'll let you get used to keeping up blocks of your own. Wouldn't want you to go insane, now would we?" Another frown pinched the space between his eyes. He leaned closer. "Hang on. Do I know you? Human faces always look the same, but I seem to think I've seen your face before."

Though I understood nothing of what he'd said about mental blocks and the like, I couldn't fight a groan. "Not you too! First, this guy named Jack shows up with his friends and acts like he's seeing a ghost or something. Now you and that impossible head of yours! I haven't seen you before in my life, honest. I mean … why me? I'm nothing special. I haven't done anything."

If anything, the Doctor's grin widened, making him look even more like a dork. "Not yet, maybe. Your mind's too far advanced for you to be a normal human. Not even a freak of nature." He stuffed his hands in his pockets, taking a step backwards, but not getting farther than that. "If I had more time, I'd love to find out who your parents were."

"What do you mean, 'more ….'"

"Doctor!" Rose came streaking around the corner, eyes flicking briefly in my direction before refocusing on the Doctor.

"Didn't I tell you …."

"It's the TARDIS! She's … don't know … tossing sparks, groaning and stuff."

Like he'd been shot out of a gun, the Doctor took off after Rose. I stood there, staring at the corner like an idiot. Okay. Mental note: Doctor's attention span sucks. Wait, why make mental notes on a guy I'd probably never see again? Shaking my head, I reached down to where my pills had dropped. Did I really need them anymore?

Just as quickly as he'd vanished, the Doctor reappeared, poking his head around the corner like a Jack-in-the-box. "By the way, what's your name? Completely forgot to ask."

That made me hesitate. He'd been in my mind and didn't know my name? That meant he hadn't gone peeking around in there. Or he knew, but thought it polite to ask anyway. Either way, I found myself touched and smiling widely at him. Unlike that Jack Harkness guy, the Doctor didn't give me the creeps. "It's Jessica Gale. What's yours? Doctor doesn't sound like your real name."

"Doctor!" A wheezing sound began filling the air.

With wide eyes, the Doctor glanced over his shoulder. "Sorry to run off. Job hazard, can't be helped." His grin, not quite dorky, but still completely genuine, made me grow warmer inside. "Nice to meet you, Jessica Gale." And like that, he was gone, the strange sound following not far behind.

"He's always been like that, you know. No matter what he looks like, you have to be quick on your feet to keep up with him."

Yelping, I whirled around, poised to throw the pills at whoever had snuck up on me like that. "Good grief! I already said I don't know you! What more do you want?" I glanced at my bottle, sincerely debating on throwing it at that Harkness guy.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, pain crossing over his face. "I know, I know, and that's my fault. I didn't realize we'd gone this far back. Didn't even realize until I saw you and . . .." He cleared his throat, standing away from the wall. Restraint screamed from every tense muscle as he took a step towards me. "Anyway, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for scaring you like that. I won't bother you again. Not for a while, anyway."

The quirk to his lips lifted my curiosity to new heights. I crossed my arms and stepped forward. That made him back up a step and a half. Okay, he definitely knows me … somehow. "What do you mean, I'll see you again? How could you know me when I know I've never seen you before?"

"One question at a time, please." Jack chuckled, but the strain carried through his words, as he ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "I can't answer everything, but the simplest answer is that I time travel … a lot. Sometimes I end up meeting people in the wrong order." He tapped a device strapped to his wrist. "This thing never works when it's supposed to. So … yeah. Basically, we'll see each other again in a few months, but it won't … t won't be me."

Time travel. My mind had already been through so much, that concept didn't even phase me. "Right. That made absolutely no sense. Care to put it in English? Or American, for that matter, but time travel? I … guess that's not impossible." Time travel! It explained everything and nothing at the same time.

Jack's smile became dazzling. "Now that's the Jess I know. Just … keep in mind that I won't know you as well when you see me again." One of his hands reached up to my hair, stopping just shy of it. Another wave of pain crossed his face. The intensity in his eyes stole my breath away. "Ah … may I? You can punch me if you want."

The twinge inside me grew solid into a sour taste of guilt. He hadn't done anything to harm me so far, just creep me out a little. What did I have to lose? Swallowing the thick phlegm that coated my throat, I nodded. Then I caught my breath as he took one of my loose strands of ebony hair and tugged at it. The twitch of his lips and the gentle way his fingers threaded through it spoke volumes. He'd given me this gesture before.

All too soon, Jack seemed to come to his senses, taking a step backwards. I didn't let him get far. "Ow!" He couldn't duck as I reached around and smacked the back of his head. "I know I said punch me, but did you have to go for the head?"

"Why not? Seemed like the right thing to do." I turned and began heading back towards the front of the store. "Nicer than a fist to that pretty face, right?"

Jack's chuckle followed me all the way inside.


End file.
